Beatrice Venezi’s appointment as music director of Teatro La Fenice was greeted with an avalanche of criticism that she was unqualified, hired only because she’s a protégée of Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni. Now Venezi says, “The (political) Right needed my clean face; they used me and then threw me away.” - Moto Perpetuo
"Having my own churning emotions echoed back to me in this way was a stunning experience, one that, perhaps paradoxically, lifted me out of my own pain for a time. Catharsis was the last thing I expected going in, but it’s precisely what I experienced." - San Francisco Classical Voice
“The work, … premiered by the Philadelphia Orchestra with conductor Marin Alsop in March 2025. … is based on an original story inspired by Andean Peruvian mythology and reimagined in a futuristic setting. … Its 10 movements follow a hummingbird as it attempts to escape cataclysm.” - The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)
A recent study found that Western music is not only starting to sound more alike but is also becoming less structurally complex than in the past. - Phys
A study of young adults with backgrounds in mathematics or music found that individuals with better mathematical abilities tended to have better musical abilities as well, and vice versa. - Psypost
As Australians vote for the greatest classical music of all time, we look at who is listening, how classical music is evolving, and how it fills the world around us, whether we realise it or not. - Australian Broadcasting Company
The memo insisted that “business as usual will no longer suffice,” and that to maintain “the BSO excellence and artistic stature requires that we put the organization on a solid financial footing.” Yet the board’s own actions have had the opposite effect, with fund-raising plunging since the announcement. - Boston Globe
It’s a computer simulation tool that can capture the precise physics of the instrument and even reproduce a realistic sound of a plucked string, according to a paper published in the journal npj Acoustics. - Ars Technica
“Returning to music wasn’t even among the most optimistic goals of his recovery plan, but this week the artist kicked off a 10-date tour of Spain.” - El País English
Very few, though “fully generative AI music will continue to be a threat to working musicians, session artists, library music composers, and the like. But they may struggle to find footing on the charts.” - The Verge
“Vinyl sales peaked during the Covid lockdowns and are now, after returning to pre-pandemic levels, plateauing or even on the downturn, while production costs are going up.” Streaming actually … isn’t as bad? - The Guardian (UK)
Keith Lockhart, longtime conductor of the Boston Pops, said Wednesday “there is a lot of blame to be spread around” for the turmoil that has engulfed the Boston Symphony Orchestra, noting that the BSO for years has been “living on borrowed time.” - Boston Globe
“These experiences allow people with money but little musical ability to roleplay composer and conductor — for a price. This development flows naturally from this era’s extreme inequality as well as classical music’s precarious state, even in such historically generous countries as Germany. It risks reshaping the art itself to align with the whims of wealthy dilettantes.” - The...
“In 1944 during the German army’s retreat, the 1719 ‘Lauterbach’ Stradivari violin was looted from the Warsaw Museum in Poland. … The violin’s value is estimated at €10 million. … Now, more than 80 years later, notice has been taken of an instrument which may be the looted violin.” - The Strad
There's a slight change to the all-tickets-for-$11-or-name-your-price scheme for next year: subscribers get first crack at tickets. And what is this "timely" Gershwin show? It's Let 'Em Eat Cake, about a fictional US President who loses his re-election bid and tries to overturn the result. - WHYY (Philadelphia)
